Work Text:
The gala at the art museum was a good way to spend New Year’s Eve, but Molly was more than willing to leave early and end up in Mycroft’s bedroom with him, getting more than just a kiss as the clock struck midnight. But she was enjoying herself and he didn’t seem to want to tear her away from it all.
She was just taking a sip from her second glass of champagne when she heard a voice call his name. “Mycroft! I haven’t seen you in ages!”
He smiled at the lovely woman who was approaching him with her very recognizable date. “Virginia. I didn’t know the two of you were in London.”
“Work, you know how it is,” Pepper Potts said. Molly was staring wide-eyed at her date. “Forgive my manners. This is Tony Stark.”
“Mycroft.” He shook Mycroft’s extended hand, then turned towards Molly. “And it's a pleasure to meet you…?” he asked, taking Molly’s free hand and kissing her knuckles.
“Molly. Molly Hooper,” she said, a blush on her cheeks and a wide smile on her face. “It’s an honor to meet you too, Mr. Stark.”
“Tony, please,” he said with a lascivious grin. Her blush deepened and she saw Pepper roll her eyes, but with a smile on her face. That meant it was nothing personal, just a flirty boyfriend being flirty. “Why don’t we let them catch up and I take you for a spin on the dance floor?”
“I’d love that, if it’s alright, Mycroft?” she asked, looking at her boyfriend.
“Of course. I’m sure Virginia and I can keep ourselves amused,” he said, and the minute he was done speaking Tony took her to the floor for a faster-paced dance song.
“He seems a little stuffy, but nice,” Tony said, spinning her out and then pulling her back in.
“Who, Mycroft?" Molly asked, and Tony nodded. "He’s a sweetheart, actually, but he hides it beneath a veneer of ice.”
“And I’m sure you get to see the full man.”
“I do,” she said as he dipped her. “He’s a good man. I imagine Virginia thinks the same of you?”
“Call her Pepper.”
Her eyes widened. “As in Pepper Potts?”
“That’s my girl,” he said with a wide grin. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m planning to propose at some point on this trip.”
“You have my word I’ll keep it a secret,” she said with a grin of her own as the song stopped and the band played a considerably slower song next. “A full dance, perhaps?”
“Why not? You’re an excellent dancer,” he said. He put an arm on her waist and she did the same, and they raised their other hands and clasped them together. “Pepper’s taller than me by a few inches so it’s nice to dance with someone shorter than me.”
“I think Mycroft feels the same way,” Molly said with a chuckle. “Before he would take his assistant to functions like this and they’re practically the same height.”
“I think I’d prefer that, actually. But Pepper is a good dancer. I’m going to try and take her for some time on the dance floor later.”
“She’ll probably enjoy it. You have quite the skill.”
“So tell me more about yourself,” Tony said as they swayed in time to the music. “You have three minutes.”
Molly laughed. “Well, I’m a specialist registrar at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, I work in conjunction with Scotland Yard, I have a cat named Toby, I’ve been dating Mycroft for a year now and I’m madly in love with him.”
“I want more, Ms. Hooper.”
Molly launched into as many things about herself as she could think of that would interest him, and he asked questions and it was a lovely conversation. By the time ended, she knew a little more about him and he knew a lot more about her. He took her back to their dates. “I had fun,” she said, slipping her arm into Mycroft’s and leaning into him.
He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I’m glad. May I have the next dance?”
“Of course!” she said. “It’s a nice, slow one, too.”
“I think I’ll take Pepper out on the floor now too,” Tony said. “It was nice dancing with you, Molly.”
“Likewise,” she said, giving him a wide smile. Tony and Pepper left them then and she turned to Mycroft. “Let’s go home after the next dance.”
“Yours or mine?”
She paused. “Yours, which I hope might become ours soon?”
“We can go now,” he said, running his hand down her back.
“Or we can go now,” she said with a nod. She cast a glance at Tony and Pepper, who were swaying close with huge smiles on their faces, and she smiled. She’d get to tell all her friends Iron Man flirted with her and it was nice, but being with Mycroft was better. And that was the honest-to-God truth of the matter.